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Saturday, September 30, 2017

I've had a great time sitting here sipping coffee and thinking of captions for the video below. Here are some:"Pope Francis trolls YouTube looking for his next Cardinal appointee.""Sorry, Francis. He cannot be a new Cardinal. He's already in jail.""Pope thinking: Fraudulent tax return?! I've found Libero Milone's replacement as the Vatican Bank Auditor!"

The battle over tariffs played a major role in
regional antagonism culminating in the Civil War,

Everyone has heard the old adage, “Follow the money,” which
recognizes the major impact economic issues play in any dispute. And the Bible itself warns that “Love of money
is the root of all evils.” It also played a large role in the Civil War. Eli
Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin made slavery more economically desirable for the cotton planters because cotton could be processed more easily and required many pickers to feed the
gin. And cotton was indeed “king” economically accounting for more than 50% of
U.S. exports at the time. Since importing slaves was banned by federal law in 1808, one result of the cotton gin was the transfer of slaves from the northern Dixie states to plantations in the deep South.

Who are the real hatemongers? Fr. James Martin and his cheering section. Think about it. Whenever anyone criticizes Martin's enthusiasm for mortal sins of deviant sex, he responds with a hate-filled, name-calling screed. And his echo chamber on the Catholic left (and even a few on the right) join the chorus. Here's a bit of Ruse's article worth highlighting:

...and unless we do too, we will continue to be vulnerable to international jihad by both violent means and by immigration and birth. Islam came close to taking over Europe in the middle ages. Today it is rising again and Europe is on the verge of becoming an Islamic continent. Let us not allow it to happen here in America!

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Pope Francis will make an Apostolic Journey to Myanmar from November 27-30 and to Bangladesh from November 30 to December 2, 2017. While there he will more than likely tell Aung San Suu Kyi, who is akin to Prime Minister, not the leader of Myanmar, what to do about the Rohingya, who are Muslims. His advice will be exactly what it is back in Italy. "Make it as easy as possible to have migrants and refugees cross your borders legally. Let them have citizenship and equal rights with all other citizens. Give them benefits and the right to vote."The Vatican Radio website says the following: "The logo for his visit to Myanmar depicts Pope Francis releasing a white dove from within a heart drawn in the colors of Myanmar’s flag: yellow, green, and red. An outline [in rainbow colors] of Myanmar’s landmass sits beside the Pope within the heart, while the motto for his journey is shown above: Love & Peace.

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

My husband and I decided we'd visit a brewery today and try a flight with a snack. We found one advertised on Trip Advisor in Watkins Glen right down the street from the state park where we'd hiked. Trouble is...when we got to the place there was a large gay flag out front.

Catholics are called homophobic hate-mongers for daring to say that acting on disordered sexual attractions is sinful. So when I see the gay flag celebrating sodomy outside an establishment, I know that I and my beliefs are not welcome there. Oh...they will no doubt happily take my money as long as I keep my mouth shut. But what if I'm wearing a pro-life T-shirt or one that says "straight pride?" What kind of reaction do you think I'd get?

So we skipped it.

Instead we stopped at the Chamber of Commerce in town and picked up a list of breweries along the Seneca Lake wine/brewery trail. What a ride! The lake views are breathtaking!

To understand the Civil War, one must go back to the founding of the Republic. It’s easy to get the idea that all was well in those early years before, during, and after the American Revolution – that the individual states were united in their desire to be liberated from England and that all the colonies and the citizens were of one mind.

They weren’t.

First of all only, about twenty percent of the country wanted to separate from England in the first place. Many Tories fled to Canada never to return. Even after England sued for peace and the colonies united in forming the United States of America, there were significant disagreements about the form of government to be established.

Some of the founders wanted a strong centralized government. Others wanted the documents to emphasize the sovereignty of the individual states and the primacy of states rights and to severely limit the powers of the federal government. The deep disagreements led to the publication of the Federalist Papers advocating for a strong central government ruling over the states and the Anti-Federalist Papers that championed the rights of the individual states and the people against what they feared could become another tyrannical government like the monarchy of England.

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Amy Coney Barrett, a widely
published professor of law at the University of Notre Dame has been nominated
by President Donald Trump for the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and was
featured in an article published by the National Catholic Register on September
22.A Senate hearing was held and
several liberal Senators including Al Franken and Diane Feinstein gave her a
brutal grilling.The You Tube video of
the Franken exchange is particularly disgusting.

The Catholic Register article
referred to an article Barrett wrote years ago as the subject of Feinstein’s
questions, stating,

“…it was Feinstein who
mischaracterized the article’s conclusion, thus raising questions about
Barrett’s fitness for the appellate bench. Truth be told, the 1998 law review article in
question, co-authored by Catholic constitutional scholar John Garvey, now the
president of The Catholic University of America, reached a very different
conclusion about the religious and professional responsibilities of Catholic
jurists on the federal bench. In their
paper, Barrett and Garvey posed this question: Must judges who accept Church teaching on capital punishment recuse
themselves in federal death-penalty cases? After exploring this question, the
authors concluded that such cases were far from common, and when they did
arise, Catholic judges should recuse themselves if necessary.” (My
emphasis added.)

...Because we all know that the LGBTQ crowd are being attacked at visitors centers all over the country. But thank heavens! They have a safe space here at Taughannock Falls State Park.

It appears we are in the politically correct capitol of rural New York. I was browsing through the booklet advertising tourist activities for Ithaca, NY last night and came across the section on LGBTQ activities. Mind you, there is no section on churches in the area. If you are among the church going public, you are on your own. Hopefully the park offers Teddy bears and coloring books for their "gay" patrons.

I am deeply offended and feel unwelcome. Do you think anybody cares. Oh...that's right...I'm just one of those evil, homophobic bigots who deserves (use your imagination). Oh well.

A question: How come a group that represents less than three percent of the population is in our faces all the time? Can't they just do their own thing and leave us alone?

Monday, September 25, 2017

Virginia State Delegate Bob Marshall has a transgender man running against him making his faux womanhood a running issue. And he's getting money from all over the country. Folks, we need to support Bob Marshall. Please don't let the LGBTQXYZ lobby put this confused individual in the State House. Read what the transgender lobby is doing to our schools here and here and here. Do you really want transgenders making laws imposing homosexual and transgender ideology on your little ones?

And really! Since when is putting on women's makeup a qualification for becoming a legislator? This is an insult to the electorate!

And frankly, I really question whether there are "millions of transgenders" in this country. This is a very vocal minority that represents a tiny fraction of the less than three percent of the homosexuals. They bang the drum constantly, but that doesn't change the reality that they are a tiny minority suffering from a disordered sexual identity crisis. Pray for them, but don't let them make policy for your state or for our country!

After dedicating his life to eradicating segregation, would Martin Luther King be thrilled by black students today demanding segregated dorms and spaces?

I'm glad Donald Trump is being tough with the Korean dictator, but I wish he'd stop calling him "rocket man." It's funny, but poking a madman may not be too prudent. It's kind of like poking a mad dog with a stick.

Just wondering: Will Pope Francis respond to the 62 signatories, clergy and laity, who issued a "filial correction" for his "propagating heresies" or will he give them the Dubia treatment?

Saturday, September 23, 2017

Investigators know that if they interview ten witnesses to an event they are likely to get ten different reports. Figuring out what really happened requires sifting through the data and finding the agreements, determining who are the most credible witnesses, etc. To arrive at an accurate picture of an event is not so easy as evaluating one testimony or one photograph and extrapolating from that to the big picture. That's how dishonest historians evaluate the past. Honest historians study the big picture.

And that's how it is with understanding the Civil War, or as one book is titled, The War Between the States: America's Uncivil War by John J. Dwyer and other contributors. A broad and deep study is necessary. I've just begun the book, but I'm already impressed by the author's approach and common sense. He speaks of the war as a "Fifty Years' War" that involved numerous factors: economic, religious, regional. Slavery was one issue among many, a factor yes, but not necessarily the most fundamental.

I'm a little tired of the historical ignorance about the conflict that led to the Civil War. Let's deconstruct the myth of the evil South and the saintly North...starting with Abraham Lincoln. In a PBS documentary on Lincoln, black historian Henry Gates discusses his disillusion with Lincoln after reading the text of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. And here's a clip from the documentary that shows some balance about the South. It's time to recognize that the history of every major conflict is complicated. And that, friends, is an understatement.

Friday, September 22, 2017

We're all interchangeable, right? Like leggos you can just take us all apart and put us back together in any configuration you choose. Pop off the breasts and the...well...you know what. Play with the hole-y pieces and put them...well...you know where. And voila! The next gender. How about a gender with breasts AND male genitals. That would be fun and different.

Sir Winston Churchill would be appalled to know that the top baby name listed for London and Britain's West Midlands is "Muhammad" - in all its various spellings: Muhammad, Mohammed, Mohammad, not to mention Hamid, Ahmad, Mahmoud, Mehmet and Mohamed. I'm not certain where the name "Winston" is on the list, or Desmond or Clive, or even William or Harry. Sir Winston wasn't enamored of Islam therefore no serious Muslim would name their baby boy after him.Islam creeps in under the disguise of "friendly peaceful poor Muslim refugees escaping Islamic countries hell holes." This - the Islamification of the West by immigration - is called Demographic Jihad which is what's happening in England and Germany, Sweden and Norway and Finland and France and Denmark and Belgium and Spain and Italy. All of the former Christian West including Canada and soon the USA.

Friends just returned from a trip across Canada said that Muslims are EVERYWHERE. A friend just returned from Europe said that Muslims are EVERYWHERE. Where Muslims are EVERYWHERE, Islam abounds. Where Islam abounds, jihad accelerates. Where jihad accelerates, people die. When people die, the state does what? Lies that Islam is peaceful. That Muslim culture- enrichers enrich the native culture. Because why? Because the former peaceful nation state and its peaceful native people were a peaceful civilization and needed violence and death to spruce up the economy? The Danish government now admits that the country is going through the worst situation since WWII because of Muslim migrant crime. Muslim migrant crime and jihad are the same thing, the equation being C = J, J= C. Therefore the Danish government is saying that because they let in hundreds of thousands of young male migrant Muslims who commit crimes, Denmark is now an unsafe country because of Islamic jihad committed by young male migrant Muslim jihadists whose gangs have taken over the streets of Denmark.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

I received this email from a friend yesterday. Good grief. Sally Quinn really is one sick puppy. Please, readers, pray for her as my friend suggests. And thanks, Maria, for the heads up!

Dear Mary Ann,

I thought this article reveals once more what you said
about this poor woman in your outstanding article on her.....You might have seen
it, but .... just in case you haven't ... How very sad....I must remember to
pray for her and for Lady Gaga too. Lots of blessings to you and yours!

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

"Et tu, Brute?" The most unkindest
cut of all comes from a "friend" who
recalls you fondly.

For the past few days I've been reading all the online material in the saga of my friend and former pastor, Fr. William Aitcheson which began with an article by Maria Santos Bier, How I discovered my childhood priest was in the Ku Klux Klan. Maria assures us that Fr. Bill always treated her kindly and that "I recall him fondly." Well, that's a relief! It was she who unnecessarily exposed Father's sins of forty years ago, of which he's clearly repented. I can only imagine what she would have written if she thought of him un-fondly. This is surely Fr. Aitcheson's "Et tu, Brute?" moment.

For a person to do what Maria did is a serious sin of detraction. For a Catholic to do it is unconscionable; but maybe Maria has never heard of detraction. (Detraction is publicly revealing the sins of a person, not commonly known, that destroys his good name.)

You can almost feel Maria's excitement over her "scoop" as she tells the reader about discovering the juicy information. Googling Fr. Bill's name, she found a 1977 article about a college student in the KKK and recognized Father by the accompanying photo. Then Maria tells us:

The three safest places to be in Florida during a hurricane are (listed in official order) Leesburg, Orlando and Sanford which form a triangle in Central Florida. We live directly in the center of that triangle. Central Florida is safer because when a hurricane moves inland, its intensity weakens from no longer being fed by ocean waters. However, it still dumps many inches of rain and causes wind damage before finally dying out.

Before and during Hurricane Irma I spent 5 days telling a panicked friend who had evacuated from Jacksonville to our home NEVER
to listen to the news during a hurricane because it's all about ratings and
NOT the truth. The media had frightened her so much that she drove from Jacksonville to our home in Central Florida and, as it turned out, closer to the eye of the hurricane because when she first heard the news - "DOOMSDAY FOR FLORIDA!" - the media had no clue where the hurricane was or where it was going.

Monday, September 18, 2017

A friend and I were chatting this morning about the perfect artists for these nutty times. My friend mentioned Hieronymus Bosch. His fantastic and macabre paintings perfectly represent the macabre mainstream of the 21st century as do those of Pieter Bruegel who was influenced by Bosch. I'm sure you recognize some of the characters in these paintings: the party boat full of drunks, the angry, the gluttons, the murderers. You can easily find examples of the seven deadly sins in these paintings. Bosch and Bruegel were obviously well aware of mankind's failings. But you can also find the pious and prayerful. We will be sorted on the last day.

Sunday, September 17, 2017

It’s difficult to understand the angry, threatening demands of women
who think that automatic “respect” status is theirs, even when they show obvious
signs of disrespecting themselves, an indication of their own confusion. Respect comes from within. We
were all created to be respected, most particularly by ourselves. Just as we are called to respect our own
bodies, we are called to pay respect to others, not the least of whom are our
own children in the womb.

Readers have no doubt heard the expression, Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi. Literal Translation: The law of praying, the law of believing, the law of living or, as it's commonly translated in English: As we pray, so shall we believe, so shall we live.

This morning after Mass I read a quote from Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, author of the Ottaviani Intervention, a letter to Pope Paul VI written in 1969 warning about the disastrous changes in the liturgy. We're reading it for book club and it is sad indeed to reflect on what has happened and where it all began.

Saturday, September 16, 2017

Defending his book, Building a Bridge (2017), Jesuit Father James Martin claims that its consistency with Church teaching is attested to by (A) his own good standing as a priest, and (B) the canonical approval the book received from his Jesuit superior.

Martin’s first claim, that he is a priest in good standing, is neither contested nor relevant to the question of whether his book is doctrinally sound or pastorally trustworthy.

Martin’s second claim, that his book enjoys canonical approval, requires some context before one can appreciate what that means—and doesn’t mean. Read more here.

I've had my own back and forth with Fr. Martin. Check it out here and note his several comments. But be sure you have a crying towel handy. Omigosh, he is just so appalled that anyone could question his decisions and be so uncharitable. Let's all send him teddy bears he can hug in his safe space. Fr. Martin is remarkably thin-skinned for a man so quick to judge others.

Like the men in Roman collars who transferred their loyalty from Christ and His Church to the English monarchs in the 16th and 17th centuries, Fr. Martin has sold out the faith for the adulation of the popular and politically correct. Perhaps he is himself a homosexual; for sure he is a homosexualist (one who promotes normalization of homosexuality) advancing ideas about sexuality that are in total opposition to Catholic truth.

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Can we blame the great Galveston hurricane of1900 that killed 8,000 people on global warming?

They are falling under the weight of money (truckloads of money) and political correctness.

Let's face it. There's lots of money in hyping the "climate change" hysteria which used to be "global warming" until it became evident that we are in a cooling trend. (Just look at Al Gore making millions off of alternative energy sources, while he powers his own mansion and private jet with conventional ones.)

So now, in order to keep the hysteria on the front burner, we need to criminalize "climate change" skeptics.

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

The mainstream media are experts at manipulating audience perceptions. The Washington Post did it to me once after an interview on pro-life activism. Not only did the reporter, who enjoyed my family's hospitality by coming to dinner (even commenting on the menu in her article), twist everything I said into a verbal distortion, but the accompanying picture showed me with greenish hair. So 60 Minutes' hit job on Steve Bannon was no surprise to me. Check out how it's done and never trust the media even when you see their production with your own eyes.

Rarely do I find a book written since 1960 that I think
is truly worth raving about. An example of what generally impresses me is the book I read two weeks ago, the Catechism of the Council of
Trent written in 1566.So I surprised
myself when I felt compelled to read The Political Pope, published this past
May, written by George Neumayr, an author young enough to be one of my
kids.

Monday, September 11, 2017

Remember the midwives of Egypt during the slave days of the chosen people? They refused to kill the male babies telling the authorities that the Israelite women delivered without their help before they could arrive. Hence, they avoided becoming cooperators in infant killing.

The language is specifically geared to make their decision sound like it respects the dignity of the patient, as if any preference of a patient is legitimate. But what this does is to endanger nurses who don't want to cooperate in evil, as well as the patients for whom they care.

Sunday, September 10, 2017

It's easy to misunderstand scripture. When I was a child, I thought St. Paul's saying that prayer "heaped coals on the heads" of sinners meant you called down fire and brimstone on them like on the sinners of Sodom and Gomorrah. Only later did I learn that he was actually talking about calling down the fire of the Holy Spirit to convert their hearts.

Today's gospel from Matthew is another passage that's easy to misunderstand. We are all called to admonish each other and Jesus tells us the right way to do it. If your brother sins against you, go privately and talk to him. If he won't listen, take another brother and challenge him together. If he still won't listen, take him to the Church (the doctrine). At that point if he won't listen, Jesus says, "Treat him like a Gentile or tax collector."

In major Supreme Court case, Justice Dept. sides with baker who refused to make wedding cake for gay couple

It's common sense (well, not so common these days) to say a Jew has a right to deny baking a cake with a swastika on it and a Muslim restaurateur has no obligation to serve bacon for breakfast. But the LGBTQ crowd demands special rights and the rest of us better just shut up or face their wrath.

Defend religious rights. If LGBTQ activists can ruin a baker today for refusing to bake a cake for a same sex wedding they can sue the Church tomorrow for refusing to perform one.

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Will you join me in praying the twenty decades of the rosary tomorrow for the intention of the Blessed Mother interceding to send Hurricane Irma out to sea?

The name Irma means entire or universal. Catholic means universal also. Let us see Irma's name as an invitation to Catholics everywhere to call on Our Lady, Queen of heaven and earth and Star of the Sea, to intercede for Irma to cease her devastation and turn away from land and move far out to sea leaving no more damage in her wake and not threatening anyone in ships on the ocean.
Let us also offer up a sacrifice placing it spiritually on the altar at Mass and begging God for mercy for all the people in Irma's path.

The quiet resistance — the one without black masks and clubs — is the more revolutionary force, and it transcends race, class, and gender....Democrats and progressives borrowed their brand name from World War II French partisans. In rather psychodramatic fashion, they envisioned their heroic role over the next four years as that of virtual French insurgents — coming down from the Maquis hills, perhaps to waylay Trump’s White House, as if the president were an SS Obergruppenführer und General der Police running occupied Paris. Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone wrote admiringly about the furious Resistance’s pushback against Trump, with extravagant claims that his agenda was already derailed thanks to a zillion grass-roots and modern-day insurgents.....Appropriating the name of heroic World War II fighters to characterize a loosely formed alliance of Trump resisters has since proven a mockery of history — and creepy as well....

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

On Sunday Scotland's bishops gathered in the rain with thousands of their countrymen to consecrate their country to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Here is the text of the consecration:

We consecrate Scotland to you: all that we have, all that we love, all that we are. To you we give our minds and hearts, our bodies and souls. We willingly place at your service our homes and our families, our parishes and schools: we desire that all that is in us and around us may belong to you, O Mary, and may share in the benefits of your motherly care.

Let us pray that all the bishops in all the nations of the world carry out such a consecration for the conversion of the world. Read more about the consecration here.

“Let this sink in for a minute…..Hundreds and hundreds of small boats pulled by countless pickups and SUVs from across the South are headed for Houston. Almost all of them driven by men. They’re using their own property, sacrificing their own time, spending their own money, and risking their own lives for one reason: to help total strangers in desperate need.

Most of them are by themselves. Most are dressed like the redneck duck hunters and bass fisherman they are. Many are veterans. Most are wearing well-used gimme-hats, t-shirts, and jeans; and there’s a preponderance of camo. Most are probably gun owners, and most probably voted for Trump.

Sunday, September 3, 2017

We attended Mass this morning at St. Peter's in Steubenville, Ohio near Franciscan University. Our granddaughter met us there with a friend. We arrived 25 minutes early and the church was already filling up: students, families with young children, older parents and grandparents, all ages. According to our granddaughter's friend, the dad of the young family in front of us (with four children including a nursing baby) was one of his professors at Franciscan. I confess to being distracted by the little one who responded to my winks and blinks with huge smiles. I'm a baby whisperer.

Dave Rubin, a gay "married" classic liberal, speaks out against the Regressive Left

Below is an interesting 8 minute video from liberal Dave Rubin talking about today's Modern Left, defined as the Regressive Left, which include those idiots dressed in black (Antifa not ISIS). He defines the Regressive Left's thought movement for us in clear language."It's a backward ideology which puts groups before people.""The only thing that can replace the regressive descent of the Left is a return to true liberalism - a liberalism which defends free speech and expression, a liberalism that is for liberty and rights of the individual, and most importantly a liberalism that is for human liberty."

Saturday, September 2, 2017

Well this explains a lot about the evil, calumny, and slander at the Washington Post. I used to do the Samurai Sudoku puzzle on the back page of the comics which was my go-to weekly puzzle until I convinced my husband to stop buying the paper. The rest of it just made me angry, so I rarely even read the headlines. Now I just pray for its demise! Judging from its shrinking size that will be coming.

As regular readers know, I'm a great fan of Shakespeare, so I found this actor's presentation of the opening lines from Romeo and Juliet as Elizbethans would have heard them absolutely fascinating. When I studied Chaucer in college we read him in Middle English. Listening to my professor recite Chaucer's poetry in Middle English was strange and beautiful. Shakespeare was writing and performing during the transition from Middle English to early modern English. We find him difficult because English continues to evolve and many words are no longer in use. "Language is a living thing," as classicist Gilbert Highet said, "We can feel it changing. Parts of it become old: they drop off and are forgotten. New pieces bud out, spread into leaves, and become big branches, proliferating." Thus it will always be. Since my birth, entire new vocabularies have developed with changes in technology and culture. And so it will be in the future.

Friday, September 1, 2017

More than 2000 people died in the 1989Johnstown flood. How many were ready?

Today's gospel reading was the parable of the five wise and five foolish virgins waiting for the bridegroom. The five foolish had no extra oil for their lamps. They weren't ready and missed the bridegroom when he came because they were out shopping for more oil. Meanwhile, the five wise virgins went into the wedding feast after refilling their lamps. Jesus finished his parable saying, "You know not the day or the hour..." so be ready.

That came home in a big way to me recently when we visited Johnstown, PA, the site of the 1889 flood, the worst disaster the country ever experienced up to that time. When the earthen dam fourteen miles above Johnstone broke, tons of water gushed down the river gaining speed and debris and slammed into homes and factories in the town demolishing them in an instant.

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